I burst into the house, arms full of groceries. “John, you’re never going to believe this!” I say to my husband who is watching a football game on T.V. “I had TWO, not one but TWO people thank me for my patience standing in lines today! Can you believe that???”
I am NOT a patient person! And I get impatient with myself for BEING impatient! But this is one of the fruits of the Spirit that has been my Word for the year. Although no-one will ever describe me as patient, there are tiny victories where I see the Holy Spirit exhibiting patience through me.
So here’s your One Word challenge for November: Celebrate even small wins!
Example: I HATE technology. It’s detail-y and unreliable and evil I’m convinced. As a person of little patience, it can drive me crazy when it doesn’t respond the way I want immediately. The other day I was preparing to speak and I had created a power point presentation to go with my talk. I opened it, but all it showed was a blank screen. I took a deep breath and tried opening it about 5 different ways. Then I went to a flash drive I thought I had saved it on, and tried that way. No luck.
Here’s where the win comes in. In the past I would have given up and either called my tech-savvy friend Heather to come over, or just scrapped it. Instead, this time I persevered and took it on as a creative problem-solving challenge (like a spy assignment!). Eventually I cracked the code and celebrated this small evidence of progress in the area of patience and perseverance – fruit of the Spirit, not fruit of Laura.
Share one of your small wins in the comments! If you get this in email, just click on the title and it will take you to the website where you scroll down to leave a comment. If this is your first or second time to comment, don’t worry if it doesn’t show up immediately…it will! Looking forward to hearing from you!
As this year has moved forward, my “word” PATIENCE greets me every time I look out the kitchen windowsill. The rock it is inscribed upon reminds me WHO my foundation is, the word reinforces that God gives me PATIENCE …no matter what hurdle may lie ahead. That little stone is a subtle but helpful reminder to persevere with patience.
Such a great idea to continually remember who it is that is doing the transformation in our lives! Thanks for sharing, Su!
As I reflect on my ‘word’ which is a phrase ‘more and more’ one area of victory is more and more love for those who seem hard to love. One person in particular has helped unwittingly as I have had to be intentional about not allowing her behavior to cause my love to wax cold towards her. I’ve prayed for more and more love and God has answered.
Oh Opal, this is so hard. I am in a similar relationship where it is easy to interpret every word and action negatively instead of expecting the best and praying to bless the other.Praying for you now.